‘Divergent’ Leads Home Video Sales Charts

Three new releases captured the top three positions on the national home video sales charts the week ending Aug. 10, led by Lionsgate’s “Divergent.”

The sci-fi actioner, set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago where people are divided into factions based on human virtues, debuted at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, Blu-ray Disc and DVD combined, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Lionsgate hopes the film, which earned $150.95 million in theaters, is the start of a “Hunger Games”-style franchise, complete with a strong female lead and dystopian future.

The No. 2 spot on both charts went to “God’s Not Dead,” a Christian drama from Pure Flix Entertainment and distributed to the home video market by Cinedigm. Nielsen data shows the film, with a domestic box office gross of $60.8 million, sold 35.9% as many units as “Divergent.”

Rounding out the trio of newcomers, at the No. 3 spot on both charts, is Walt Disney Studios’ “Need for Speed,” a DreamWorks crime drama about a street racer bent on revenge that earned $43.6 million in U.S. theaters.

“Noah,” the biblical epic from Paramount that debuted at No. 1 on both charts the previous week, slipped to No. 4.

Rounding out the top five on First Alert is 20th Century Fox’s “The Other Woman,” a comedy about a trio of women out for revenge against a man who is cheating on all of them that debuted the prior week at No. 2.

On the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, the No. 5 spot went to the horror film “Oculus,” a new release from 20th Century Fox that came to video with a $27.7 million theatrical pedigree. “Oculus” debuted at No. 8 on the First Alert chart.

Of those four new releases, “Divergent” tallied the highest percentage of Blu-ray Disc sales, with the high-definition version accounting for 51% of total unit sales. Next came “Need for Speed,” at 44%, followed by “Oculus” at 37% and “God’s Not Dead” at 30%.

Universal Studios’ “Bad Words” came in at No. 3, now that its 28-day holdback from key rental outlets Netflix and Redbox is over, followed at No. 4 by Sony Pictures’ “Heaven is for Real,” down from No. 2 the prior week.

“Need for Speed” bowed at No. 5, and “God’s Not Dead” debuted at No. 6.